Have you heard about the House's Stop Online Piracy Act bill yet? Technology analysts warn that provisions in SOPA, and its sister bill in the Senate (the Protect IP Act), will cripple many of the largest technology companies. Twitter, Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, and many others have come out against the bills. Things have escalated to the point that Reddit has planned a mass productivity increase initiative as a form of protest.
All of that is fine and dandy, but the votes that count are cast by Congress. Many members have communicated their views using Twitter, I have tabulated and displayed these tweets for your information below.
Number of Anti-SOPA or PIPA Tweets as of January 12, 2012
| Name | Party | State | Anti-SOPA Tweets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darrell Issa | Republican | CA | 439 |
| Zoe Lofgren | Democrat | CA | 34 |
| Jason Chaffetz | Republican | UT | 13 |
| Ron Wyden | Democrat | OR | 13 |
| Lloyd Doggett | Democrat | TX | 9 |
| Justin Amash | Republican | MI | 5 |
| Keith Ellison | Democrat | MN | 4 |
| Doris Matsui | Democrat | CA | 2 |
| 16 others with 1 tweet | |||
We have to crown Darrell Issa (R-CA) champion of the anti-SOPA movement. Congressman Issa and his staff has tirelessly expressed his stance in 439 tweets. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) is a distant second with 34 mentions. Again all of these tweets state and anti-SOPA position, 535 tweets in total.
Who Loves Themselves Some SOPA?
With so much controversy with this legislation, you would think that members of Congress would want to fight both sides. However, after constantly collecting tweets from over 360 politicians I only found one Pro-SOPA tweet. Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA) come on down:
You can contact Congresswoman Chu and give her your opinion here.